Movie Review by EDF
Starring: Eric Jungmann, Justin Urich, Aimee Brooks, Joe Goodrich
Director: Michael Davis
What more does a 25 year-old man want from life? With an old banged up car, a compass, a map, 70’s disco music playing on the radio and an invitation to the wedding of a girl he has longed fancy, this has all the hallmarks of a romantic comedy, right? Wrong. The roads on this trip are mostly empty and Adam’s (Eric Jungmann) best friend, the juvenile, loud, filthy-mouthed Harley (Justin Urich) has hidden himself away in the back seat. When Harley finally reveals himself, geek Adam jumps out of his skin.
Stopping at a roadside diner, Harley makes fun of the local rednecks watching the monster truck show on TV. Adam quickly makes their excuses and leaves. A short time later, a strange looking monster truck bears down on Adam’s car and drives them off the road. Convinced that they will experience no more problems, they book themselves into a motel. They are woken up during the night with the discovery of a dead cat in the room. Fleeing the motel, they drive off into the night but find that there is someone in the back seat of the car.
They allow the mysterious and gorgeous Sarah (Aimee Brooks), who was sleeping in the car, to tag along. Sarah reveals that she does not quite know where she wants to go, so long as she puts some distance between her and whatever it is she is running away from. Harley tries to convince Adam that he should make a move on Sarah and for some reason she is attracted to Adam. Another motel and the screams in the middle of the night leads the young trio to witness a man being run over by the monster truck. The leather-face like monster truck driver played by Michael Bailey Smith spots the young travellers and the following morning he leaves a message on the hood of Adam’s car declaring “You’re Next”.
There are a number of movies that MONSTER MAN can be compared to such as DUEL and a selection of 80’s horror movies. When the movie attempts horror and comedy, the horror side tends to lean towards the gross out and the humour tends to be just foul or silly. Somehow the lead actors make this movie watchable and while there are certain twists that will surprise viewers, others can be guessed at and even if you are right, so what. This might spawn a new franchise and if it does, then writer / director Michael Davis has stuck gold with a movie that looks like it took longer than 23 days to shoot.
